Blog Post

Alphabet Mango | Icon | Illustration

This Tutorial focuses heavily on the construction of the gradient mesh in inkscape. We take a look at best practices and the structure of the gradient mesh so designing with it is a little easier on the “nogin”. Also we take a look a vector colouring technique.

Using the Bezier Tool I traced the mango that I drew and scanned to the computer.

Bezier Tool

Alphabet Mango Screen 3

Then rotate the mango so that its outside edges are as close to 180 degrees or 90 degrees. For any shape you should identify where the gradient is most linear and rotate the shape so that the gradient of colours (the blend) is as parallel to the gradient grid as possible.

We can then activate the Gradient mesh tool. Click the object that you want converted into the Mesh/Lattice. When you select the option you will be shown in the tools control box an area for columns and rows. You are required to create the enter how many you want for your shape.

For the intersection of every column and row you will get a gradient stop node. And that node will hold colour information. The colours will fade into one another through the different colour nodes. So it is up to you to determine how many colour nodes and colours transitions you will need for your object.

Gradient Mesh Tool Selection Tool

Alphabet Mango Screen 4

The diamond nodes represent the gradient stops. We can then use the Dropper Tool to colour each section. We’ll then be using the circular nodes which represent the handles to bend the gradient lattice. When moved or bent the circular nodes become elongated triangles that point to the diamond node they belong to.

Then you can bend each handle to mimic where you expect the colour to fade and form.

Colour Dropper Tool

Alphabet Mango Screen 5

Add the colour in the most logic places to get mimic the tone of the shape – as if it was in actually light

Colour Dropper Tool

Alphabet Mango Screen 6

Then I used “colour banding”. A technique that mimics the colour technique that the Inkscape Trace Tool uses to colour bitmaps that have fades in colour(gradients).

You can see this in the leaves

Alphabet Mango Screen 7

Lastly I added some highlight to the tips of the mango where light would fall more dramatically.